Personalization isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the spark that creates real connections and drives meaning at work. But as organizations expand, delivering experiences that resonate across roles and geographies—while maintaining ROI and a unified culture—can seem daunting. At the recent Bright Conference, leaders from Genuine Parts Company, Indeed, and Equifax tackled these challenges head-on, sharing hard-won insights and practical wisdom.

Panel speakers included:

• Katie Hardy, Director of Internal Communications at Genuine Parts Company (GPC)
• Lisa Rogers, Director of Employee Communications Platforms at Indeed
• Dan Lach, Senior Director of Digital Media Services at Equifax

Each shared their unique perspectives, successes, and challenges. Let’s unpack the essential themes shaping the future of employee experience, now enriched with candid perspectives and real-world quotes from the panel. Watch the on-demand recording.

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Diverse Employee Bases, Unique Challenges

The panelists began by introducing their organizations and the diverse employee bases they serve:

• Equifax: A global company with 15,000 employees, ranging from highly technical data analysts to sales teams. Dan Lach highlighted the challenge of uniting these groups on a single platform, noting, “The technology people want their own space, while sales teams prefer something different. The challenge is convincing everyone to use LumApps as a collaboration space, not just a tool for accessing other platforms.”
• Indeed: With 15,000 knowledge workers, Indeed’s workforce is primarily desk-based, with minimal mobile usage. Lisa Rogers emphasized the importance of cutting through the noise of multiple communication platforms to deliver relevant, personalized content.
• Genuine Parts Company (GPC): A global organization with 60,000 employees, 70% of whom are non-desk workers without email access. The biggest internal comms challenge is reaching all employees - both office-based employees and deskless employees in distribution centers or on the road. See the Genuine Parts case study.

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Why Personalization Matters: It's the Engine for Engagement

Modern employees crave more than one-size-fits-all messaging. They want platforms that deliver what matters, when it matters—and they notice when it misses the mark. Lisa Rogers from Indeed captured this challenge, saying, “At a size of 15,000 employees, you can get a lot of noise. Personalization helps cut through that noise and deliver what employees need to know to do their jobs.”

Knowing your people is the foundation. Katie Hardy of Genuine Parts Company described their approach: “Our challenge is finding a way to engage both office-based employees and those in distribution centers or on the road.” For GPC, over 70% of the workforce doesn’t have email. That shaped a content strategy prioritizing pay, benefits, and critical updates across every channel—building trust by meeting employees where they are.

Dan Lach from Equifax broke down their layered solution: “We put enterprise-wide news at the top, business unit updates next, and finally individualized content—so employees see their name and what’s relevant to them. That simple change, just adding ‘Hi [Name]’ to the homepage, made a surprising impact.”

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Metadata: The Backbone of a Personal Touch

When it comes to employee intranets, the panel agrees that it must be well-organized in order to be useful. Great personalization leans on smart, not sprawling, metadata. The panel agreed: simple beats complex. “We started with 50-60 metadata tags and had to cut that in half,” Dan admitted. “It’s about finding the balance between specificity and simplicity.”

Lisa explained how Indeed keeps things manageable: “For us, it was an exercise and less is more. Do we really need medical, dental, vision, or can we just have a benefits category?” Integration with HR systems like Workday and Okta allows for efficient segmentation without piling on layers of complexity.

Katie added that keeping metadata evergreen is vital: “It has to be as evergreen as possible. If it changes every time we have a new leader or project, it quickly becomes unmanageable.”

And transparency matters. “At Indeed, all content is visible unless there’s a reason to restrict it,” Lisa said. “That way, search becomes powerful and nobody’s left out of the loop.”

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Personalization Without Losing the Organizational Thread

Segmented communication is powerful, but too much fragmentation can erode unity. Dan cited their thoughtful structure: “We make sure everyone gets enterprise news first, then business unit updates, then personal interest content. That way, people stay connected to the bigger picture.”

Leadership involvement is a difference-maker. Lisa shared, “Our CEO frequently tells people at town halls, ‘Check Huddl for more information.’ When leaders validate the platform, credibility skyrockets.” Employee spotlights and authentic stories also build belonging—Katie noted that these human stories consistently drive higher engagement than generic updates.

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Turning Numbers Into Action

Personalization thrives when it keeps evolving. The panelists were clear: analytics should support decisions, not just measure them. “Data is just numbers unless you turn it into actionable insights,” Lisa said. “Make the data tell a story, so it actually changes what you do next.”

GPC, for example, tracks time spent and pages visited, aiming for just-right engagement—enough to get what’s needed, but not so much that employees lose time. “If an hourly worker’s in for fifteen minutes, we know something’s off,” Katie explained.

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Five Practical Steps for Smarter Personalization

1. Start with the Audience: “Know who, who you're personalizing it for,” Katie advised. Segment by needs, not org chart.
2. Simplify Metadata: “It was an exercise in less is more,” said Lisa. Streamline for clarity and agility.
3. Make Unity Visible: Let enterprise news stand out, weaving in shared goals and values to reinforce cohesion.
4. Elevate the Human Element: “Adding names, running spotlights, and human-interest stories always drive engagement,” Dan noted.
5. Close the Feedback Loop: “We’re learning to use analytics not just to track, but to adapt,” Lisa shared. Encourage feedback and act on it.

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Personalizing the employee journey is an ongoing act of listening, learning, and adjusting. When technology, data, and empathy work together, organizations not only engage employees—they build a stronger sense of belonging and shared purpose. As these leaders revealed, success comes from making every digital interaction feel personal, meaningful, and connected to something bigger.

How is your organization bringing personalization to life? What’s working—and where could you streamline or connect more deeply? 

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